PENNAL and the DYFI VALLEY

Pennal is situated in the beautiful Dyfi (Dovey) Valley, and both the village and the landscape around it share an ancient history.

THE DYFI VALLEY

The river Dyfi flows down from the Snowdonia Mountains (from a lake called Creiglyn Dyfi under Aran Mawddwy), and forms an wide estuary meeting the sea at Aberdyfi, a quaint former fishing village nestled into the coastal hills.

Aberdyfi is know from the tales of Taliesin, being the place he was fished from the weir by Elfyn. In some versions of the story it is the Dyfi river itself that Gwion (who becomes Taliesin) is chased down by Cerridwen. Aran Mawddwy overlooks the valley of Lake Tegid in the tale.

Above Aberdyfi tucked in the hills is a ring of small standing stones, and dotted along this coastline are many single marker stones and other evidence of prehistoric activity.

Inland, the town of Machynlleth is built at a narrow crossing point of the Dyfi, the old stone bridge still carrying the coastal traffic north and south. Machynlleth is famed for having Owain Glyndwr's one remaining standing parliament house, falling as it does almost midway between the mountainous (and harder to travel through) northern regions of Wales and the more rolling southern areas. As such Machynlleth is regarded by many as the ancient capital of Wales.

Machynlleth also had two standing stones, one survives on private land and no longer available for the public to visit.

PENNAL

The Romans built a small fort at Pennal, (now just visible as slight undulations in a field) this was thought to be because it was an easily fordable part of the river and allowed good sea access, not to mention giving a base for controlling the unruly Celts. Pennal seems to already have been a meeting place for the Celtic tribes of Wales falling on neutral ground between three major tribal areas. The Roman roads leading immediately out of Pennal have long since gone to due the meandering of the Dyfi and local farming and quarrying, but hills to the north, south and inland still show evidence of those structures.

Around 520CE a wattle and daub church was established on what was probably an ancient burial mound near the site of the fort. This church grew and developed, being a focal point for the rallying of the Welsh against oppressors, due to it's ancient neutrality. In 1406 it reached the most famous point in it's and Pennal's history...